RimWorld – Raiding Guide: What Raids Are, How to Raid, Etc.

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In RimWorld, you build a colony that is supposed to last some of the toughest challenges human life should be able to face.

There are endless raids from mechanoids, humans, barbarians, cannibals, and so on. Nobody seems to want to leave your colony alone.

Recommended Read: How to Butcher Humans in RimWorld

However, what if you could take the fight to them? What if you would be the one raiding the settlements of other factions?

Well, we will try to teach you all that there is to know about raiding in RimWorld to help you bring the fight to the raiders!


Table of Contents


What are Raids in RimWorld

Just so we are clear, in this guide, we will be talking about how raids in RimWorld started by the player work. We won’t tell you how to properly defend from the never-ending raids of other factions.

A player-raid in RimWorld is when you send your pawns to a different, populated tile to steal resources.

In RimWorld, random spots will appear from time to time near your colony that you can send a caravan to raid. These locations are usually really small settlements with low populations that you can raid for resources.

On the World Map, if you select one of these locations, you will see the number of people that are living there, the factions they are part of, and the main resource you can get there.

Players also have the ability to raid main settlements of other factions at any time. However, there are a lot of enemies in these locations and they will usually be extremely hard to defeat.

You are more likely to fight small work sites next to your colony. However, raiding and destroying hostile settlements close to your home wouldn’t be a horrible choice either.


When Should You Start Raiding in RimWorld?

There are many things to consider before starting raids in RimWorld. If you want to raid work sites near your colony, you can start as soon as the first days after starting a new game.

As long as you have long-range weapons, decent food reserves, and good/decent fighters, you can raid all the work sites surrounding your colony instantly.

Just make sure that you don’t take on faction work sites unless they are part of a hostile faction. You will see if they are part of a big faction or not in your quest menu.

If the game describes the work site as being populated by a small, independent group, then it means that there will be no major repercussions for raiding this location.

However, if you plan on raiding a base of a faction, then you should be somewhere in the late game. You will need full cataphract armor for all of your raiders and excellent/masterwork weapons for the battle.


How to Raid in RimWorld

To raid in RimWorld, all you need to do is form a caravan and go to a work site or settlement. If you go to a work site, the residents will instantly be hostile, and you will have to fight them.

Once you’ve killed them, you will have a few days to gather whatever you can and go back to your colony. Otherwise, the faction that you’ve attacked, even if they are a minor faction, will send reinforcements to take the place back.

This is why, if the location is close to home and you don’t have a lot of carry weight, you can travel back and forth from the location while leaving one or two pawns there.

If all your pawns leave a work site, then it instantly disappears. However, if you leave someone behind, you can do multiple trips to get as much as possible.

You can also build in the “conquered” tile, so you quickly make a killbox for the coming reinforcements and profit from the fresh land.

Players can steal anything they want during raids. You can even steal tables, chairs, and beds. There is no one stopping you from taking them.

If you leave before the reinforcements come, then you can get away without any repercussions. Raiding a settlement, however, is very different.

Usually, it might be better to use weirder tactics to raid a faction base. You can, for example, bring a mortar with you to siege them.

You can also drop bombs right on top of their base using transport pods, or you can be even quirkier and drop animals on their heads.

This way, you can attack them without putting your pawns at risk, and you can also use these distractions to build defensive structures for your attack.

Bringing snipers is also a really good idea. You can build defensive structures around your entry point and use the snipers to attack the base once you’re ready.


That’s everything you need to know about raids in RimWorld!

Have any input or suggestions for this guide? Let us know in the comment section below.

Adrian Oprea

Based in London, United Kingdom, Adrian Oprea is a Guides Writer. As a professional single-player RPG player, Adrian has often been stigmatized. He has decided to pour his frustration into writing guides!

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